Feisal-Frankfurter-Correspondence

Feisal-Frankfurter-Correspondence

Introduction

During the peace conference following World War I, the Emir Feisal
exchanged letters with Justice Felix Frankfurter, professing his support for Zionist aims. In the light of later
history and the current characterization of the Zionist movement, it is significant that Feisal wrote:

We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two
movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not
imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without the
other.

The introduction above is copyright 2007 by Ami Isseroff. The
document below is in the public domain.

A letter from his His Royal Highness Prince Feisal Husseini, king of Syria and Iraq to Felix
Frankfurter, associate of Dr. Chaim Weizmann:

DELEGATION HEDJAZIENNE,
Paris, March 3, 1919.

DEAR MR. FRANKFURTER: I want to take this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to tell you what I have
often been able to say to Dr. Weizmann in Arabia and Europe.

We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in having suffered similar oppressions at the
hands of powers stronger than themselves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the
attainment of their national ideals together.

We Arabs, especially the educated among us look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist
movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist
Organisation to Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate proper. We will do our best, in so far as we are
concerned, to help them through: we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.

With the chiefs of your movement, especially with Dr. Weizmann, we have had and continue to
have the closest relations. He has been a great helper of our cause, and I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position to
make the Jews some return for their kindness. We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two
movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not
imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without the
other.

People less informed and less responsible than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for
co-operation of the Arabs and Zionists have been trying to exploit the local difficulties that must necessarily arise in
Palestine in the early stages of our movements. Some of them have, I am afraid, misrepresented your aims to the Arab
peasantry, and our aims to the Jewish peasantry, with the result that interested parties have been able to make capital
out of what they call our differences.

I wish to give you my firm conviction that these differences are not on questions of principle, but on matters detail
such as must inevitably occur in every contact of neighbouring peoples, and as are easily adjusted by mutual good will.
Indeed nearly all of them will disappear with fuller knowledge.

I look forward, and my people with me look forward, to a future in which we will help you and you will help us, so that
the countries in which we are mutually interested may once again take their places in the community of civilised peoples
of the world.

Allow me, on behalf of the Zionist Organisation, to acknowledge your recent letter with deep appreciation.

Those of us who come from the United States have already been gratified by the friendly relations and the active
co-operation maintained between you and the Zionist leaders, particularly Dr. Weizmann. We knew it could not be
otherwise; we knew that the aspirations of the Arab and the Jewish peoples were parallel, that each aspired to
re-establish its nationality in its own homeland, each making its own distinctive contribution to civilisation, each
seeking its own peaceful mode of life.

The Zionist leaders and the Jewish people for whom they speak have watched with satisfaction the spiritual vigour of the
Arab movement. Themselves seeking justice, they are anxious that the just national aims of the Arab people be confirmed
and safeguarded by the Peace Conference.

We knew from your acts and your past utterances that the Zionist movement-in other words the national aim of the Jewish
people-had your support and the support of the Arab people for whom you speak. These aims are now before the Peace
Conference as definite proposals by the Zionist Organisation. We are happy indeed that you consider these proposals
"moderate and proper," and that we have in you a staunch supporter for their realisation. For both the Arab and the
Jewish peoples there are difficulties ahead-difficulties that challenge the united statesmanship of Arab and Jewish
leaders. For it is no easy task to rebuild two great civilisations that have been suffering oppression and misrule for
centuries. We each have our difficulties we shall work out as friends, friends who are animated by similar purposes,
seeking a free and full development for the two neighbouring peoples. The Arabs and Jews are neighbours in territory; we
cannot but live side by side as friends.